Mashujaa Day

Day 5       Sunday, 20^th October, 2013     (Ignore automatic date .... I'm catching up !)

We decided to go to St Josephs, the Roman Catholic church for the 9 a.m. English mass, which follows on from the 7 a.m. Dholuo mass, and is itself followed by the Kiswahili mass at 11. Father Gerry gave us a lift; the church courtyard was heaving with hundreds of people, but being the only two white faces there, we were spotted by Geraldine and Rachel (who work as cooks/cleaners here at Mill Hill) and who had attended the Luo mass. So lovely to be greeted, and to know that people here are so genuinely welcoming. Our hands are shaken a hundred times a day, as well as hugs and cheek kisses from those women who know us well.

The mass is great fun; dancing girls, oo-loolating choir, lots of hand waving and clapping. Goodness me, just think if I started dancing and jumping up and down in our village church …. There are no hymns or service books; the choir sings several Dholuo and Kiswahili hymns, and the congregation sings the gloria and the creed (African fashion) and various responses during the service. Its very easy to join in. The only problem is the dead backside after sitting on a hard wooden bench for two hours, squashed in between women with babies, young men, children, and the elderly. All humanity is there, and about 500 – 750 of them to each of three Sunday services. And there is a similar Anglican church up the road, and literally hundreds of others churches of all sorts of denominations throughout the town. And mosques …. and Hindu temples …. and a Coptic church … and a Sikh temple …. Religion is a major part of life in Africa.

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Its strange every day to walk or drive past the hospital where my eldest daughter was born ….

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Sunday evening we were invited to Paul and Lucy's house for supper. They sent a tuk-tuk to pick us up and we were driven over the AWFUL road to where they live in a suburb called Mollem …. named for the road building company that was based there many years ago ! Non local Luo place names here all have origins …. the Nakumatt supermarkets common throughout Kenya are named after the Nakuru Mattress company !!   'Ten Houses' is the area where ten identical houses were built about 40 years ago …. and so on.

Lucy cooked us a wonderful supper. She produced my favourite Luo tea …. water, milk, ginger, tea leaves and sugar all boiled together, and then poured through a tea strainer. She also gave us another favourite drink …. mango and passion fruit juice ! Mmmmm …. delicious !

Home in another tuk-tuk, which is scary in the dark, and particularly as the road resembles a lumpy ploughed field but Paul always makes sure we travel with people he knows and trusts.

Work tomorrow, Monday, at the workshop, despite it being Mashujaa Day …. Heroes Day, and thus a public holiday (deferred from Sunday).   I can't find out who the 'heroes' are ... but I'd nominate Wangari Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt movement and herself a planter of thousands of trees.    Look her up on Google !